Lol. My boot lock works fine. But if it ever seizes I'll give it a try and let you know. I would guess it would be necessary to protect the surrounding paintwork.

My mother once dropped and broke a bottle of pickled gherkins in her rear footwell. Despite her attempts to clean it up, it caused the floorpan on that side to rust through eventually.

 

Hi all. 2008 4.2. In the trunk floor there is a drain-vent-grommet thing that allows ingress of a tender cable. I keep the tender in the trunk, trunk closed. If one were really clever perhaps a positive (covered) bolt could be put in that opening? Of course, if your trunk opens with a dead battery, moot issue.

 

I cannot speak for the final facelift cars, but the X202 (first facelift) has a keyhole under the chromed Jaguar plinth which allows access to the trunk with a dead battery. I would have to assume the later cars must have something similar.

 

Yes, you're right. Was thinking of the convenience angle.

 

As someone mentioned earlier, and what I've done because of dealing with the same experience of a dead battery and trying to get into the trunk, I've tied a strong piece of string to the metal bar that supports the rear seat headrest, fed it into the trunk with the rear seat pulled open, and then tied onto the emergence release cable that hangs from the underside of the trunk lid. You can always use tape or velcro and attach the string to the trunk liner so it doesn't get in the way of putting things in the trunk like golf clubs. Sometimes I wonder how many Guinness were drank when they designed some aspects of this 2005 s type. Otherwise love the beast.

 

Just use either of your 2 keys in the boot (trunk) lock!

It's perfectly well designed if people would just use a key.

 

My suggestion is an easy fail safe solution should for example the boot / truck key cylinder not work for whatever reason. Rusted etc has some have mentioned. Scenario, wife takes car to an off grid cabin with others in another car with cables. Battery is dead and they can't get the boot opened electronically or with the key. Don't have tools to take out the rear seat, and trying to get the front right tire off and peel back the wheel-well cover to expose the positive port Jag decided to put there is next to impossible for them.
Pull on the string and it activates the emergency relaese and their in. Please help me understand why they couldn't put that positive port somewhere within the engine bay area so we could help the girls get the car started without needing all the tools and muscle.

 

If you use the key in the lock once or twice a year the above is not going to happen.

Just use the key!!

 

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!

Personally, I like the string idea. I had considered doing just that several years ago but kept misplacing my round tuit.

I just spent a whopping 20 minutes routing and testing an emergency backup backup trunk release. Inside the cabin, I attached some light paracord with a small carabiner to the car seat anchor behind the right rear headrest. Here’s a view with the seatback folded forward. I used a short piece of double-sided (non-adhesive) Velcro to keep the cord clear of the latch:




Here’s the seatback returned to its upright and locked position in preparation for landing. Flight attendants will be passing through the aisles to collect any last minute cups and napkins. In retrospect, I could have skipped the carabiner and tied the cord directly to the anchor:



The view inside the trunk. Hard to get a decent picture in the bright sunlight. I used some more short Velcro pieces to hold the cord out of the way. At the hinge arm, I made one loop of Velcro (with minimal overlap). No need to worry about the Velcro holding the cord when pulled.



The test went swimmingly. Pull on the cord behind the headrest. I had to pull a moderate amount of cord because some (but not all) of the Velcro broke free, as expected.

I highly recommend this very low tech mod.

 

Right it's not rust. As JagV8 posted it's lack of use. After I found about this on my old STR and ran the key back and forth until things loosened up. It worked as designed. But with zero usage it will lock up again!
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